A great Day in Grand Teton National Park A face off between two bulls!

We were busy packing when our neighbors Becky and Fred told us about their trip to Grand Teton National Park. They had made a quick trip to the park and in only six hours got to watch two moose and a black bear! The weather here has been crazy with daily heavy rains, but the forecast was for a one-day break before the rain and cold weather returned. So the next day we got up early, at six am, and headed to Jackson for a quick breakfast at McDonalds before heading to the park. Taking the roundabout, we drove towards Kelly and quickly ran into a moose jam. Stopping, we talked with a person who told us four moose had been in an open area but that they had just disappeared into a thicket of willows,

Looking further north we saw people still taking pictures and so we parked, grabbed our cameras and joined the group photographing a huge bull moose guarding a single cow. At one point the bull turned and looked at us but he decided we were not a threat.

A smaller moose calf fed in the willows. Suddenly a small bull moose appeared across the Gros Ventre River.

He was smelling the cow and walked up to the water before the huge bull made an appearance.

The much smaller bull seemed to lose interest, and the large bull decided the challenger wasn’t worth the effort and the cow laid down for a siesta. The young bull decided the time was right to try and sneak across the river as the smell of the cow in estrus was driving him wild.

It’s rutting time and it was the first time we have ever seen two bull moose squaring off over the cow. The young bull started to wade across the river. It would take a few steps and then paise looking for his opponent.

Slowly he approached the south bank of the river when suddenly the huge bull stood up and appeared on the bank.

We have never seen a moose move as fast as the young bull as it splashed away to escape the massive rack.

Discretion can be better than valor. The young bull decided to leave the area and disappeared in the willows on the north bank of the Gros Ventre. What a start to the day

. Clear skies In spite of the government shutdown, the park was open, but without any services besides the restrooms. The entrance booths were unoccupied, not that it mattered much as we both have Senior Passes.

Prepping for the winter

It is almost time for us to leave Star Valley. The Star Valley Rv Resort has announced the closing day on October 15th. Th water lines will freeze if they are not drained. Otherwise, we would stay longer as we love it here. Its been an incredible busy six months, most of which we have already written posts about. We have played more pickle ball than ever before and at times the best we have already played. However, its getting harder to move so some of the shots go flying past us. I have a bunch of things to fix so I can continue to improve on the depth of serve, being in the ready position, hitting with the ball on lobs, and working on my backhand, are just a few. I did play in one tournament called “the dink a thon”. I entered the 3.5 level group and quickly realized I was in the wrong group. Oh well, someone has to be the anchor.

We hope to hold a similar tournament in South Texas as many of our players are lacking in dinking skills. We also play in two round robin groups. One meets on Monday afternoon and is limited to 3.0 and 3.5 players of any age. Another meets every Friday and is limited to players who are seventy years old and above. There are a lot of people in this group, many of which are above our skill levels, (4.0 and above. New partners are drawn for each game ). It’s a good way to meet people and the better players will often suggest changes to better our play! Thanks to Nora for organizing both activities.

We had hoped to go to Grand Teton National Park but it’s shutdown with the government closure. We are heading to Jen and Erics for some flyfishing, before heading to a small family reunion at my sister Connie and Gary’s house in Springfield, Illinois. We also have several more doctors’ appointments before we can leave. Hopefully all will go as planned and we hope to arrive in South Texas November First. To all our friends who are traveling we wish you safe travels, and to others we hope to see you down the road. Clear skies Ps our blog visitor numbers since inception are now almost 480,000. Thanks to all who visit! I probably should have accepted advertisements but that would defeat the purpose, (and I hate blogs where the advertisements go on and on}. Our blog is a journal for us to remember where we have been since retirement. We make no money from it.